NEWS

Schneider returns to practice

Cory Schneider returned to practice on Thursday and expects to be ready for this weekend's back-to-back against the Flyers and Wild.

Schneider, who last saw action last Thursday against Vancouver, has missed two games with a lower body injury.

"Nothing serious," Schneider said. "Just, as coach said, a lower body injury that kind of cropped up. I just needed a few days to let it calm down and I think the way the schedule worked out, only playing once in a week, we saw it as an opportunity to just be overly cautious and make sure that I'm better and not try to rush back.

"Fortunately, we had a couple of days here and I'm feeling great, feeling 100 percent, so I should be good to go."

The Flyers make their first visit to Prudential Center on Saturday before the Devils (3-5-4) head to Minnesota to face former captain Zach Parise for the first time.

"I think that's the plan," Schneider said. "We haven't gotten to that point yet. I just wanted to see if I could make it through today with no issues and I did. I'm sure we'll talk about that, but yeah, back-to-backs with travel, hopefully I'll be ready to go for one of those."

With back-to-back wins and victories in three of their last five contests (3-1-1), the Devils are trending in the right direction.

"We want to keep this going," head coach Peter DeBoer said. "I think we've got a good feeling, we're starting to get a good feel about what our games should look like on a nightly basis. You want to keep that going, you don't want to take your foot off the gas when you're in those situations. That's the goal."

Schneider's aiming for his seventh start of the season. So far, he's 1-3-2 with a 2.14 goals-against average, .915 save percentage and one shutout.

"I've been very fortunate in my career that I haven't missed a lot of time, either practices or games," he said. "Sometimes you're just not used to knowing when you feel right and when you don't feel right. Sometimes [the trainers] have to tell you, 'Let's take a few days here and make sure we get this right.'"